


With the Dust of Stars in her Eyes

by smaragdbird



Series: The Stars that Lie to You [3]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Breha finds her long lost brother, Family Feels, Family Reunions, Gen, past rape/kidnapping referenced, past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 19:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: A Jedi crashes on a First Order planet and meets a pilot looking to defect...History repeats





	With the Dust of Stars in her Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for the last fic in this series had a bonus that I just had to write after all the trauma I put Poe and Finn through in this series

Breha cursed her bad luck as she crawled out of her ship’s wreck. Of course Master Skywalker always said that there was no such thing as luck only the Force but Master Rey never seemed to believe him either when he said those things.

She quickly scanned the sky for any signs of approaching TIE’s. Maybe she had really managed to get them off her trail before her motivator had decided to give up on her. But Maridan Five, as Breha had decided to name the planet, was settled by the First Order and it was only a matter of time until she was discovered.

The war against the First Order had started before she had even been born. After the destruction of the Hosnian System the Republic had called to arms and had pushed back the Order from the chartered parts of the galaxy planet by planet.

The heart of the First Order however lay in the Unknown Regions. The chancellor wanted said part of the galaxy cartographed to the best of their possibilities before launching a large scale operation against the Order on their home territory. Breha had fought nail and tooth to be part of this mission. After all both of her parents were war heroes and this would be her chance to distinguish herself as well.

Except that now she was stranded on a hostile planet without a ship or the ability to call for help. Above her she heard the tell tale sound of a TIE fighter. And not just any TIE fighter. Going by the engine noise it was a special edition TIE fighter, the same kind her parents had stolen once. Which was good news for her because if the base here still used the older generation TIE’s then there was a chance this planet was merely an outpost and hopefully not as heavily defended as a core world would be.

Breha’s advantage was that she had crashed in a fairly dense forest. Even when they spotted her from a ship they would have to send in ground troops which gave her time to try and hide. Maybe she could take a leaf out of her parents’ book and steal a TIE fighter.

Her hand flew to her lightsaber as she heard steps on the forest floor. Not enough to be a squad of soldiers and for some reason the presence of another person hadn’t registered as hostile. She ignited her lightsaber and faced her opponent. His uniform marked him as a pilot which meant he likely had a ship around somewhere, a ship that could bring her home or at least would allow her to call for help through a long ranged com link.

“Kriffin shit”, the pilot said instead of going for his blaster. “You’re a Jedi!”

“What if?” Breha was ready to strike the moment he made a wrong move but the pilot held up on hand and took off his helmet with the other. His skin was slightly paler than hers and he had the same freckles scattered over his nose. His thick black hair reminded him of her papa’s even though his hair was mostly grey by now.

The pilot looked around as if to check if there were more. “Are you part of the Republic’s invasion force?”

Breha stared at him. “What?” 

“The Republic’s invasion force”, the pilot repeated. “They’ve been telling us for years that the invasion was going to start any day now. And you’re a Jedi. You could probably take that outpost by yourself.”

Which was a flattering if most likely untrue statement. Breha’s combat experience was limited to pirates, not First Order troops and this mission had been supposed to be reconnaissance only. “You don’t seem to mind that.”

The pilot smiled. “I’ve been on guard duty on this outpost for the past six months. An invasion would seriously improve my day.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Breha asked. She suspected he was stalling for time in order for the backup to arrive and take her prisoner. She couldn’t feel anyone else but then again she hadn’t felt him approach her either.

“I want to help you to escape.”

“You want to help me escape?” Breha raised her eyebrows. “Why?”

The pilot looked aside. “I just do, okay?”

The story of how her parents had met came to her mind and she said, “Okay but I’m flying.” If he turned on her she could still kill him and take the ship from him.

“You’ve ever flown a TIE fighter before?”

Breha shook her head.

“Then I’m flying.”

“I’m a Dameron”, she replied. “I can fly anything.”

The pilot snorted. “I’m not going to risk my survival on your hypothetical flying skills. I’m flying.”

“What’s your name?” Her dad had told her that stormtroopers didn’t have names but he wasn’t a stormtrooper, he was a pilot, so maybe he did.

He grinned. It was a very self-assured, very cocky grin. Her papa grinned like this whenever he was about to fly a particularly risky or downright impossible manoeuvre. “I’m Twirl.”

“Twirl?” She repeated. Somehow she had thought a First Order pilot would have a more impressive name.

“You’ll see.”

“What about my ship?” Breha asked. “I can’t leave it here. The First Order cannot know that I was ever here.”

Twirl looked around her and at her ship. “What’s wrong with it?”

“The motivator gave up on me”, Breha told him. 

“That’s not something we can easily repair”, Twirl replied. He frowned slightly as he tried to think and for some reason it reminded her of the expression her dad had when did. “We’ll have to take our chance.”

/

Even with the inertial dampeners and having spent a lot of her life on ships, Breha started to feel nauseous. Twirl was slinging the TIE fighter around so quickly that everything outside became a blurry mess. Apparently that was nothing out of the ordinary because ground control had swallowed Twirl’s excuse of an extra perimeter flight despite his erratic flying.

“How long until the hyperspace drive powers up?” Twirl asked her.

“Two more minutes”, she replied. Breha had seen enough combat to know that two minutes could be very long. And if the First Order noticed anything out of the ordinary...

“Do you have any Jedi powers that could help us?”

“Not...really”, Breha gritted out between her teeth, cursing her decision to let him fly. Twirl had timed the perimeter run very well, she noticed. They should be near the jumping point when the hyperspace drive had finished powering up and thus they should be able to jump before the First Order was able to engage the gravity wells which would prevent their escape. He had obviously had had time to plan his escape which begged the question why he hadn’t fled from the First Oder on his own.

When she asked him, Twirl said, “The First Order has a lot of spies in the Republic, I figured teaming up with someone else would give me a better shot at surviving my defection.”

It wasn’t a lie but it was also not the whole truth, Breha could feel it. But the console in front of her beeped to let her know that the hyperdrive was ready.

“Here goes nothing”, Twirl said as he steered towards the jumping point. They had maybe a twenty second window before command would see that he had gone off course and activate the gravity wells.

Breha closed her eyes and whispered “This will work. This will work.” Again and again under her breath. For a few horrible seconds she thought they had botched it but then she felt the pull of gravity as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

Twirl cheered as she opened her eyes and saw the reassuring blue-white streams of hyperspace through the window. She let her head fall back against the headrest in relief and took a deep breath. “I’m Breha, by the way.” She had only realised now that she hadn’t introduced herself to him.

“Nice to meet you, Breha”, Twirl replied.

“So, why did you really want to escape?”

Twirl hesitated for a moment but then he said, “I want to find my family.”

“Your family?” Her dad had told her that stormtroopers were taken from their families when they were too young to remember them. Apparently pilots were too. Maybe all of the First Order soldiers were stolen children, like Bey and her dad.

“I had to do archive duty a couple months ago and I found an old file about my mother. She was a prisoner of the First Order but she managed to escape and now I want to find her. Her and the rest of my family like my father and my sibling.”

“You have siblings?”

“The file said that my mother had me and six more children while she was imprisoned. But she also had one before me.”

Breha made a disgusted noise at the back of her throat when she realized the implications.

“Yeah”, Twirl said quietly, “It’s not a nice thought. But I was born seven months into her captivity maybe I’m a child that she wanted.” He sounded so hopeful that it broke Breha’s heart.

“The First Order kidnapped my papa when he was pregnant”, she said. Twirl had trusted her and now she was going to trust him. “My papa was rescued eventually but not my sibling.”

“Sorry”, Twirl said.

Breha shrugged. “Obviously I don’t remember them. And my parents speak very little of them.”

“Maybe I’m your brother”, Twirl joked.”We both have freckles.”

Breha shook her head but she smiled. “My sibling’s a stormtrooper if they’re still alive. My papa said it was punishment because my dad defected from the First Order.”

“Your dad defected from the First Order?” Twirl asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah, he did”, Breha said. She had heard the story many times from many different people and she was so proud of her dad. “It was a long time ago, before the war.”

“Are you saying your dad is FN-2187?” Twirl yelled. “The stormtrooper who saved a Resistance fighter, blew up the Starkiller Base and defeated Lord Ren in a lightsaber battle?”

“Yes?” She was surprised to hear that a First Order pilot would know about these things.

“Kriffin hell, your dad’s a legend. Granted in not a very good way since he’s always taken as the most extreme example of the damage traitors can do to the cause but there’s so many rumours. I didn’t think he actually existed.”

“He exists”, Breha said, secretly amused that the First Order apparently credited her dad with defeating Ren. Master Rey would have a few things to say about that.

“Can I meet him?” Twirl sounded as excited and giddy as a five year old on their name-day.

“Thought you wanted to find your family, not mine”, Breha teased him. She wondered how her dad would react to meeting another defector from the First Order. He’d probably be happy to meet Twirl. There hadn’t been many defectors during the war and those who had escaped had often been killed by spies within the Republic. The First Order took betrayal very seriously.

“That was before I knew your father is a legend!”

Breha grinned. “Tell you what, I’ll com him once it’s certain you’re not a double agent.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m really glad your ship crashed”, Twirl replied.

/

Breha opened communications as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace. She didn’t want to risk being shot down five minutes away from home. The sight of a TIE fighter approaching a Republic base was unusual enough that when they landed it seemed as if everyone was gathered on the landing strip.

The first thing she did after climbing out of the ship with Twirl was to make her way to her commanding officer’s office. Colonel Connix was in charge of the operation unveiling with the aim to make the unknown regions less unknown before the war with the First Order flamed up again.

And because gossip travelled faster than anything else in this galaxy, Master Rey was in Colonel Connix’s office as well.

“Good morning, Colonel, Master”, Breha greeted them.

“I remember sending you on this mission in a glider”, Connix said. “And without any passengers.”

“I crashed on a First Order planet”, Breha reported. “Twirl found me and helped me escape. He flew the TIE fighter.”

“I’m PK-5289, ma’am”, Twirl said, standing straight with his shoulders squared and his hands behind his back. “I was a TIE fighter pilot for the First Order. I’ve defected and I’m willing to give you all the information on the First Order that I have.”

Connix and Rey looked at each other and started to grin. “It seems”, Connix said, “that people of the Dameron family attract First Order defectors like sugar attracts flies.”

Rey approached Twirl and rested her hand against the side of his face. 

“What is she doing?” Twirl asked, obviously out of his depth.

“She’s checking if you’re saying the truth or not”, Breha said. 

“Should it tickle?” Twirl asked, “Because it tickles.”

Rey raised an eyebrow as she stepped back. “You have an interesting flying style.”

Breha pretended to throw up. “Don’t mention it. I’m going to be motion sick for the next year.”

“One of my flight instructors said it was a good idea to stay in motion all the time while flying. Makes you less likely to be shot down”, Twirl explained. “Was that okay? Am I okay? I promise I’m not a double agent.”

Rey smiled. “You’re okay. And thank you for rescuing my padawan, who apparently needs a few more lessons on ship repair”, she added with a long look in Breha’s direction.

“Yes, Master”, Breha said because it was kind of true. She didn’t have Master Skywalker’s or Master Rey’s natural affinity towards machines. Aunt Karé had always tried to cheer her up by telling her she didn’t need to be a good mechanic to be a good pilot, she just needed to make sure she was best friends with the mechanics.

“Please sit down, Twirl”, Connix said. “I believe there are things we need to talk about.”

Breha gave Twirl an encouraging smile over her shoulder before she followed Rey out of Connix’s office. Instead of giving her a lecture about ship maintenance though Rey pulled her aside. 

“Do you know who he is?” Rey asked in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

“Twirl? He’s a First Order pilot”, Breha shrugged. “Why? What did you see?”

Rey gave her a look. “You can do better than that, I know it. What does the Force tell you about Twirl?”

Breha tried to think. “On the planet…”, she said slowly, “Twirl didn’t…I mean the Force didn’t…I didn’t feel him approach. And never felt hostile.”

“What else? What about the reason he wanted to defect?”

“His family?” Breha asked. “What does that have to do with…no…that was a joke! He didn’t actually mean that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Am I sure that the guy who saved me isn’t also my long lost brother? I’m sure. That would so unlikely even a holo-soap wouldn’t use this as a plot.”

Rey started smiling again which reassured Breha that she wasn’t taking this line of thought seriously either. “What about Master Skywalker and General Organa?”

Or maybe she did. “That was once”, Breha pointed out.

“The Force – 

“ – works in mysterious ways”, Breha finished for her. “This isn’t mysterious though, this is a bit on the nose.”

“You know what Master Skywalker would say?”

“Search your feelings, you know it to be true?” Breha asked. It was one of Master Skywalker’s favourite phrases.

Rey shook her head. “Ask Leia, she knows better.”

/

“Grandma?” Breha asked as she knocked on Leia’s door. Even though Leia wasn’t related to her, she had always been there for Breha. And she also had a long lost brother so getting her advice seemed like a good idea.

“Hello Breha”, Leia greeted her. “What can I do for you?”

Breha decided to be straight. “How did you know Luke was your brother?”

Leia’s face told her that she knew about Twirl. Of course she did. Gossip travelled faster than a speeder through hyperspace. “He called me through the Force when he was in great pain and distress. You think Twirl is Bey.”

Breha nodded. “We look similar enough, he’s the right age and he’s a great pilot. Plus he said he found a file about his mother that said she gave birth to him seven months after she was taken prisoner. Except that…” her voice faltered for a moment. “Except that Twirl said they forced his mother to have six more children and…they didn’t do that to papa, did they?” She was aware that she was asking to be lied to. She just couldn’t imagine that the First Order could’ve been so cruel to him. 

“Breha – “Leia started but her tone told her everything already. She pressed her hands over her mouth.

“No.”

Leia walked around her desk and rested her hands on Breha’s shoulders. “Did you tell Poe and Finn about Twirl yet?”

“Don’t you mean Bey?” Breha asked back. She felt nauseous from the revelation of what had been done to her papa. “How did he…he’s so normal. I knew he was strong…he had to be but…”

“Poe has you, he has Finn, he has Kes and me and his friends”, Leia said. “Giving up is not in his nature.”

Breha nodded. That made sense even if it wasn’t a great comfort. Suddenly every time she had argued with her papa, every unkind word she had ever said to him came back to her. All while he had suffered from even worse wounds than she had ever known. “Do you think I should tell him?” Her parents had barely ever mentioned Bey. Maybe they’d rather forget. Maybe the truth would only rip open old wounds and make everything worse.

Leia nodded. “I think you should. The truth isn’t always nice but it’s better than a lie.”

/

“Hey”, Breha said when she found Twirl. Out of the TIE pilot uniform he looked even more like her papa. It was the hair mostly. Where Breha had inherited her dad’s curls, Twirl had her papa’s thick, black mane.

“Hey”, Twirl grinned at her. “Are you sure this is a military base? You guys are so relaxed about everything. Plus the food is a lot better. In the First Order mess they serve you mush, the colour depending on the day of the week.”

“I need to talk to you”, Breha said.

The smile vanished from Twirl’s face. “I’m not being sent back, am I?”

“No of course not, it’s about…it’s about your mother.”

“Do they know where she is?” Twirl sounded so hopeful. After all he had defected in the first place to find his family.

Breha nodded. “Do you remember on the TIE fighter when you joked that we’re siblings? Well, we are.”

“What?”

“You’re my brother. You’re Bey.”

Twirl stared at her mouth hanging slightly open. “How do you know?” He asked eventually.

“I’m a Jedi”, she said, squirming slightly. “The Force told me. Plus everything you told me about your mother…it’s exactly what happened to my father.”

“But you said your sibling is a stormtrooper.”

Breha shrugged. “That’s what my father said but he can’t know for sure. And I guess not even the First Order can keep a Dameron from flying.”

“That means I’m…I’m…FN-2187’s my father. And Dameron? You mean Poe Dameron, the kriffin chancellor of the Republic?” Twirl looked as if he was about to faint.

“And you have a Jedi sister”, Breha added with a grin. 

Twirl still stared at her. “But that’s…FN-2187? Are you sure? I mean I learned about him in training.”

“I’m as sure as I can be”, Breha said. “We could do a DNA test to be completely certain.”

“Please, I mean, how good are those Jedi senses of yours? It would be so kriffin great if I had already found my family.” The thought lit up his face. “You’re my older sister then?”

“Definitely older”, Breha said decisively. “So you better do what I say”, she added with a grin.

“Yeah, no”, Twirl replied but he grinned back.

/

The first thing Breha did when her papa greeted her at the door was to wrap her arms around him and squeeze him as tightly as she could. She had to choke back tears or he would be worried. “I love you papa”, she whispered.

“Love you too”, Poe replied and hugged her back. 

Breha held on for a moment longer, and then she pulled back. “I need to talk to you”, she said, knowing her next words would change everything. 

“Okay”, Poe said. “I’m officially getting worried. Are they sending you on a mission that’s even more dangerous than cartographing the hyperspace routes of the Unknown Regions?”

“You’re not supposed to know about that”, Breha said although she was not surprised.

“Perk of being Chancellor”, Poe replied. “One order and I get to know everything my daughter is up to.”

Breha snorted. “Is Dad home too?”

Poe nodded. “Finn, your daughter is home!”

A few moments she could hear footsteps and then her dad appeared on the top of the stairs. He was wearing his uniform so Breha guessed that he had spent the morning on the coms, working. When he saw her he smiled and hurried downstairs to hug her as well.

“It’s good to see you made it out of First Order territory in one piece.”

Over his shoulder Breha threw her papa a look but Poe raised his hands and shook his head. “I didn’t tell him.”

“Rey told me”, Finn said. “She got a bad feeling and wanted me to be prepared to launch a rescue mission in case you didn’t make it back in time.”

“About that…”Breha started. “Maybe we should sit down.”

“Should we be worried?” She heard her dad whisper to her papa as they followed her into the living room.

“I’m worried”, her papa whispered back but he didn’t sound serious.

Breha waited until her parents had sat down and then took a place opposite them. “I found Bey.”

It was Finn who made an abrupt motion, but Poe just sat there, still like a statue. “How?” Was the only thing he asked.

“I got stranded on a First Order planet”, Breha said. “Bey…Twirl, that’s his nickname, he found me and he saved me. They made him a TIE pilot and he flies even crazier than you papa. And he defected from the First Order like you, dad.”

“How do you know he’s your brother?” Finn asked.

“I put it together”, she counted the same reasons she had told Leia about, save the last one. “And Twirl, he…he found a file about himself, about…”

“About me”, Poe finished for her.

Breha nodded. “But the file was coded, so he didn’t know it was about you, but he…it said…I know papa. I know what they did to you.”

Poe stood up. “I need a moment”, he said and fled the room. She watched as Finn looked at Poe but when Poe shook his head, Finn didn’t follow him.

“I’m sorry”, Breha whispered into the ensuing silence.

Finn shook his head. “We never meant for you to know about that but it’s good that you told us.” He patted on the empty space on the sofa. “Come here.”

She did. It felt good to curl up against her dad as if she was a little girl again.”What happened to the others?” She asked, not knowing if she should.

Finn shrugged. “Who knows? They were taken from Poe right at birth just like Bey was.”

“It was Kylo Ren, wasn’t it?” She remembered a different conversation when Leia had told her about her son and what he had done. How he had killed his father, how he had almost killed her and kidnapped her papa.

“Yes.” Breha could feel her dad’s anger through the Force. And she shared it. If she ever met Ren she’d take his head off with her lightsaber.

Poe chose that moment to come back. He looked pale but determined. She knew that expression. She had seen it at home and on the holo-news, whenever he had something unpleasant to get through. “Where is he?”

“At the base with Leia. He was pretty shocked too when I told him. Apparently finding out that you’re the son of two legendary enemies of the First Order can be hard to take in.”

“You told him?” Finn asked.

Breha gave her dad an uncertain look. “Should I not have? Leia said I should. And I mean he only defected because he wanted to find his family and…” She trailed off, unsure how to end that sentence.

“How did he take it?” Poe asked.

“Like I said he was pretty freaked out at first. Although he was mostly freaked out about Dad because apparently the First Order is still using the story of how you met as a deterrent. But he was really happy too. Said he never thought he’d find his family so quickly.” Breha looked at Poe. “He’s a good guy papa.”

Poe nodded slowly. “It’s just a lot to take in. Even after I was freed, I never thought there was a chance Bey could still be alive. I thought Ren had killed them as punishment for my escape.”

“But you’ll come and meet him right?” Breha asked anxiously.

“Of course we will”, Finn reassured her.

/

Breha smiled when she saw Twirl nervously biting his lip. Her papa had the same habit. “You don’t need to be nervous”, she told him and rested a hand on his arm.

“What if they don’t like me?” Twirl asked.

“Why shouldn’t they?” Breha replied. She could see her parents’ glider approach the base. 

Twirl shrugged. He watched as the glider landed and then first Poe and then Finn emerged from it and walked towards them as Breha waved at them.

“Hi”, he said with a rough voice. “I’m Twirl. I mean I’m PK-5289.”

“You do not want to know how he got that nickname”, Breha added. “He flies like crazy.”

“Guess that runs in the family then”, Finn said. “I’m Finn, Finn Dameron. I used to be FN-2187.”

“I’ve heard about you”, Twirl said quickly. “Actually I heard about both of you. Although I’m sure it’s mostly lies.”

“Bey”, Poe said suddenly. “I called you Bey.”

“Bey”, Twirl said and swallowed hard. “It…it’s a nice name. Much better than Twirl.”

“That’s because it doesn’t tell people immediately that you have no business being in the pilot seat. I still get nauseous from the memory of our escape”, Breha said, desperately trying to lighten the mood.

“Well you guys didn’t crash so you did better than Poe and I”, Finn replied.

“We didn’t crash”, Poe corrected him. “We were shot down.”

“We were shot down because you wanted to go back to Jakku instead of hauling our asses into hyperspace”, Finn replied.

Breha sighed. She had heard her parents bicker about this incident countless times. Twirl on the other hand seemed fascinated.

“Because the map to Luke Skywalker was still on Jakku.”

“Wait, Luke Skywalker is real?” Twirl asked. 

Breha nodded. “He’s my master’s master.”

“How did the First Order explain it?” Finn asked.

“That you were kidnapped by a Resistance fighter and brainwashed to work against the First Order. It’s used as a lesson to never let our guard down.” Twirl shrugged. “They say that you were vulnerable because you prioritised compassion over your goals or something like that. Sorry, I slept through most of ‘political education.”

“How did you become a pilot?” Poe asked. “Ren had been adamant you would be a stormtrooper…or worse.”

Twirl grinned. “I managed to take out an enemy battalion with a troop transporter during a simulation. We only got rudimentary flight training but after my troop leader saw that she put me forward for the TIE program.”

There was a pause in the conversation. Twirl fumbled with something in his pocket and opened and closed his mouth a couple times as if he was uncertain if he should say something or not. Breha gave him an encouraging smile and he slid a holo-disc over the table towards Poe.

“It’s all I could find about…my siblings. I thought maybe you’d like to know what happened to them. Or maybe not. I’m sorry. It was a stupid idea.

“No…I…thank you”, Poe replied and took the holo-disc. 

“I know it’s probably too late to have a father-son relationship. But I’d like to stay here. And maybe we can figure something out, given enough time.” Twirl gave Poe and Finn a hopeful look.

“I’d like that”, Poe said and Finn nodded along.

Twirl let out a relieved sigh and Breha laughed and hugged him.

It wasn’t an ending. It was a beginning.

And in time it would be a happy one.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


End file.
